Silk Invest sees renewed bond issuance in Nigeria

The Nigerian banks are starting to pile into their local bond markets. Guaranty Trust Bank is seeking approval for a N200bn ($1.3bn) debt issue. This follows similar plans at First Bank (N500bn) and marks a much anticipated return for the banks who have dormant in issuance for three years. Likewise, Access Bank has also drafted plans to issue debt.

We would caution that a major credit risk is the potential for over-issuance of debt. In the interim, however, we look forward to observing the development of a much needed yield curve in Nigeria which will enable the banks to see longer term business objectives met as well as the potential for investors to play relative value investment strategies.

Global recession not impacting frontier markets

This is an interesting visual from the Economist..

Zimbabwe sees strong trading volumes

Accordins to Renaissance Capital, Zimbabwe is now the third biggest equities market in sub-Saharan Africa, based on turnover. Volume has jumped from USD 50,000 to USD 1.3 million per day. The market value of shares listed has jumped from a bargain basement USD 1bn to USD 4bn in seven months.

Air Arabia expects stong Moroccan growth

Air Arabia wants its Air Arabia (Maroc) to become as big as it is within five years. The Dubai-listed carrier, the Gulf Arab region's largest low-cost airline, plans to expand by three to four aircraft per year. Moroccan shareholders own 51% of Air Arabia (Maroc), including family-owned holding company Holmarcom. The remaining 49% is held by listed Air Arabia and a Bahraini bank. Air Arabia (Maroc) will help meet growing demand for travel to Morocco the government expects to exceed 2008's record 8m visitors in 2009 and is aiming for almost 10m tourists in 2010.

Africa shrugs off worst of equity market correction.

It is good to see that equity markets appear to have finished the short term correction. Take a look, however, at how robust Africa has been in the sell off!

Botswana’s gross domestic product plunges 22%!

Botswana's GDP fell by 22% compared to Q4 2008. The decline in GDP was due to decreases in mining and quarrying industry, water and electricity, general government, hotels and restaurants. Manufacturing fell by 15% while mining and quarrying industry contributed most to the decline at 68.6%.

Almarai delivers again...

Almarai delivered 2Q SAR287m net profit in-line. Lower There was a positive surprise on the operating expenses front. SG&A as a % of sales improved significantly from 19.3% to 17.7%. The company is increasing its focus on cost controls to offset slowing sales growth.

Almarai, although a Saudi company, is the largest integrated dairy foods company in the world!

IMF say Tunisia is prudent and strong

The IMF has just noted in a report the Tunisian economy’s resilience. It said it reflects a strong posture of structural reforms and prudent fiscal and monetary policy stances.

Tourism, remittances and FDI have held up far better than expected. In addition, reserves of USD 9 billion are considered high. The IMF predicts growth of 3%